The Impact of Racial Profiling on Consumers in Canadian Retail Settings: A Mixed-Method Study Exploring Negative Emotions

Abstract

This research investigated the negative emotions of 514 Canadians who reported being suspected of shoplifting in retail settings. Consumer racial profiling (CRP) is an important topic of consideration due to the links to General Strain Theory, everyday racism, and victimization. The research focused on two research questions. First, does race have a significant association with negative emotions following incidents of CRP? Second, are factors beyond race, like profiler characteristics, retail demographics, profiling method, and victim demographics, associated with negative emotions among customers who have experienced CRP? Descriptive information is provided to contextualize the relevance of each variable. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that the number of profilers, victim gender, retail location, and the profiling method are associated with changes in negative emotions following CRP. Practical implications regarding the examination of the profiling method and the number of profilers are discussed at length.

Keywords

consumer racial profiling mixed-methods shoplifting general strain theory retail stores racial discrimination

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